Internet Institute to be set up in Berlin

Published: 2 June 2017

EUR 50 million is spent on creating a new Internet Institute in Berlin, which will research the social consequences of digitalization.

vince0531.jpg

How can we confidently participate in public affairs in a digital society? How should democratic institutions respond to the challenges of digitalization? These are just some of the questions the new Institution will need to deal with. A Berlin-based consortium comprising the five major universities of the Berlin-Brandenburg region (the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University, the Technical University, the University of the Arts and Potsdam University) beat competitors from Munich, Bochum, Karlsruhe and Hanover as the Federal Government selected Berlin as the host of the new Institute, which is to receive EUR 50 million in the next five years and, subject to a positive evaluation of its operations, a further five-year extension is also possible.

The German Internet Institute will be the second major IT centre established in Berlin within a short timeframe. The Einstein Digital Future Centre launched in April, and is receiving EUR 38.5 million in funds from the region, the universities and corporations. The launch also involved setting up 50 new IT teaching positions. The two institutes will work together closely, their activities will be mutually complementary and they will be located in the same place. But while the Einstein Centre will liaise primarily with economic players and focus on questions of technology, the research aims of the Internet Institute will center around the social consequences of digital change. The new Institute will be expected to both critically analyze and shape digital change.

The Institute will employ 60–70 researchers. Five new faculties will be created. Political and economic players are already looking to Berlin as the capital of digitalization.

Christian Amsinck, Director of the Federation of Business Associations in Berlin and Brandenburg says that the Institute should deal primarily with the opportunities inherent in digitalization and work closely with start-ups.

Preparations for this Internet Institute have been underway for a long time. Four years ago, CDU and SPD even included its foundation into their coalition agreement. There already exists another institute with a similar task, namely the Alexander Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) financed by Google. While that institution maintained by an internet giant, the Federal Republic of Germany would like its own institute, which will be significantly better endowed than HIIG, which will receive ‘only’ EUR 4.5 million for its first three years. So the new Institute is generously financed, even if EUR 50 million is not extraordinary in an international comparison.

The Internet Institute is also tasked with changing the negative view of digitalization. Whenever digitalization is mentioned, its negative effects such as fake news, hate speech and the radicalization of online communities are the first to be cited. The founders hope that the Institute will help improve the image of digitalization again.